User Interface Introduction

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Introduction

The Openbravo 3 user interface is optimized for productivity. It is characterized by the following attributes:

  • Multiple tabs that allow to have multiple documents open at the same time
  • Master-detail views: Parent and child record information is shown in the same view
  • In-grid editing: It is possible to modify field values directly in the grid
  • Column filtering: Filter fields on top of the grid allow for real-time filtering while typing the keyword
  • Application menu: A multilevel fly-out menu to discover and access all functional areas
  • Quick menus allow for fast access to existing documents and creation of new documents
  • Sessions: user and profile/role settings can be accessed via the top navigation
  • Help can be accessed via the top navigation and help content will be opened on separate tabs

Login

You access Openbravo through a Web browser.

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1. Enter your Openbravo URL into the address bar of the browser.


The login window opens up.

In case the login page is not being not displayed, please verify the correctness of the URL, or contact your system administrator.

2. Enter your user name and password. The user name and password are assigned by the system administrator. If you don´t know your user name and password contact your system administrator.


3. Click login

The Openbravo Home page shows up.

Google Account Association

You have the ability to log into an Openbravo instance using your Google Account by clicking the G-button that is shown on the login screen below the login button. There are two ways to use the Google Accounts authentication service:

  • Link an existing Openbravo user name with a Google Account
  • Configure an instance to allow any user with a Google Account to log into the application. If no Openbravo user is linked to that Google Account, a new one is created with default properties.

Learn more about Google Account association in the Configuration Manual

Screen Areas

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The Openbravo 3 screen consists of the following components:

  • Top navigation
  • Main (1st level) tabs
  • Toolbar
  • Message area
  • Status bar
  • Header level (form or grid)
  • Sections
  • Child (2nd level) tabs
  • Column filters
  • Child grid
  • Grandchild (3rd level) tabs

Top Navigation

Top-nav.png

The top navigation offers the following menus or functionalities:

  • Quick Menus
    • Create New
    • Launch
  • Application Menu
  • Alerts
  • Log out
  • User Preferences
  • Help

Quick Menus

Quickmenu-buttons.png

Via the quick menus you can quickly launch new documents or jump to existing documents.

  • Create New: a new document of a specific type is created on a new tab in form view
  • Launch: a grid for a specific document type is opened on a new tab

Both QuickCreate and QuickLaunch work in the same way using auto-suggest based on the typed input. By simply entering the first couple of letters of the name of the document type, you will be offered suggestions for the type of document you are looking for.

WIK Quick.png

Application Menu

The Openbravo 3 application menu uses the same taxonomy as the 2.x versions, only the presentation has changed. Folders are replaced by expandable menus but its contents remain the same.

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The contents of the Application Menu depends on the user's role. For example, one user can have various roles and see different things with each. Users and roles are usually created and maintained by the client's Administrator.

Alerts

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WIK Alerticon.png

An alert is a notification that informs or warns its recipients about a critical or very important situation that has arisen. With one click you can see and edit all your active alerts.

The number of new alerts is shown in the top navigation as Alerts (n). Clicking this link will take you to the Alerts Management tab. This tab shows four sections, each one representing a status or stage in the alert life cycle:

  • New alerts: alerts that you have not marked as read/acknowledged and that are not ignored nor solved
  • Pending alerts: alerts that you have marked as read/pending because you don´t want to see them in the new section anymore. You would do this for example when you or your colleague have taken care of the problem but this has not been updated in the system. A typical example is: Stock of product x dropped below critical level. You just placed a new order by phone but it will still take a day to receive the orders.
  • Ignored alerts: alerts that you do not want to see back again. By placing them in the Ignore section, it means that they are now exceptions to the alert rule.
  • Solved alerts: alerts are automatically moved to the solved section when the system notices that the alerts threshold seized to be violated. Note that you cannot mark alerts as solved yourself.

In the Notes column, you can add a comment. You would typically do it when moving a New alert to (for example) the Acknowledged/read section. You can move alerts to a different section and clicking one of the buttons in the top right of the grid. The Record column contains clickable links. They let you open the (problematic) record on a new tab for further investigation.

More about Alerts

Help & About

The last item in the top navigation is the Help menu. It also contains an About item. Help content is opened on a new tab.

User Preferences

Click the user name in the top navigation to access a user preferences menu. The menu is split in two tabs: Profile and Change Password

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  • See the current role information.
  • Change the session options such as role, entity, organization, warehouse, language you want to work with.
  • Set your default session options .
  • Change password (on the second tab in the menu)

Log out

Logout-icon.png

This button logs you out of the application. A confirmation dialog lets you confirm.

Tabs

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Openbravo 3 allows you to have multiple transactions open a the same time on different tabs. You can switch between active tabs, just as you do using a modern internet browser. Tabs can be closed by pressing the X button.

In case of overflow, when the total width of the tabs exceed the available horizontal space, three buttons appear to the right of the last tab that allow you to scroll through the tabs and easily navigate to one.

Starting from version 3.0PR14Q2, it is possible to reorder tab position. To do it, drag the tab and drop it in the desired position.

Starting form version 3.0PR15Q3, by default only one tab of a window is allowed. Only in case there is a module in development or the window is flagged as Thread Safe it is possible to have multiple tabs. Since this version there is a new Preference property Allow Multiple Tabs of a Window that enables the possibility to open more than one tab of a window. This preference can be configured by user, role and/or window level.

Levels & Views

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An application window consists of one or more levels: parent, child and sometimes even grandchildren and deeper. They are separated by a horizontal splitter bar. Each level can be displayed in grid or form view.

Grid View

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The grid view functions as the base view and often as a starting point to filtering and drilling down. The user can open a record in form view on top of the grid. The interaction metaphor that is used is that of a file explorer of an operating system. The grid is the folder with files, a double click opens the record. The record in form view can be closed at any time by clicking the close (X) button in the top right corner of the form.

A record in the grid can be opened via:

  • A double click on the row
  • Pressing the <ENTER> key on the keyboard
  • Clicking the form/document icon on the left hand side of the row

Tree Grid View

Bulbgraph.png   The Tree Grid View is available from Openbravo PR14Q2
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The tree grid view is an alternative to the standard grid view that is available for tabs based on tables that have been defined as a tree. The tree grid view shows the tab data hierarchically. When the view is first loaded only the root nodes are shown. The user can then open individual nodes to load its children.

To switch between the standard grid view and the tree grid view the user has to click the Tree toolbar button: WIK button Tree.png

The user can reorder the nodes of the tree, moving a node to another parent or to another position within its original parent. Some restrictions apply when moving a node:

  • If the tab is set as read only, the user will not be able to change the position of tree nodes.
  • Openbravo PR14Q3: If the tab has the flag "Read Only Tree" checked, the user will not be able to change the position of tree nodes.
  • If the tab has a Summary Level field, then it will not be possible to drop a node to a record whose summary level field is not checked.
  • Some trees may define specific restrictions. For instance, it is not possible to move an organization if it is set as ready, or a menu item if it belongs to a module that is not in developement. If the user tries to move one of these nodes, the movement will be reverted and a meaningful message will be shown in the message bar.
  • By default the node movement will occur just after it is droped in its new position. To show a confirmation popup before actually moving the node, the OBUIAPP_ConfirmNodeReparent preference should be set.

Openbravo PR14Q3: There are some configurations that can be done at tab level:

  • "Show Tree Node Icons": It is only available when the tree is in read only mode and by disabling it the tree icons can be hidden.
  • "Default Tree View Logic": It defines if by default the tree view should be shown following a specific logic

When the tree grid view is filtered, not only the records that fulfill the filter criteria will be shown, also its parent nodes, until reaching the root node. This is done in order to show the filtered nodes in its proper context. The font color of the context nodes is grey in order to distinguish them from the nodes that actually fulfill the filter criteria. It is not possible to reorder the tree nodes while it is being filtered, as it some records are hidden the new position of the node could be ambiguous.

It is not possible to create or edit a node using the tree grid view, for that the standard grid view should be used. What it is actually possible is to open a record in form view from the tree grid view. Then the record can be edited in the form view, and when the form view is closed the tree grid view will be shown again.

If a user wants to use the classic tree popup instead of the tree grid view, he can use the Use Classic Popup Tree preference.

Form View

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The form view is used for more complex editing of individual records. Normally header records are created in form view because they e.g. a description which usually is too long to enter comfortably in grid view.

The form view can be closed by

  • Clicking the close (X) button in the top right of the form.
  • Clicking the Save&Close button in the toolbar, this is the button with the floppy disk combined with the X symbol.

Form Personalization

This feature allows you to change the order and visibility of fields, and several other settings:

  • assign fields to the status bar and assign fields to existing field groups
  • set the colspan or rowspan
  • define if a field should be placed on a new row
  • the field which will get the first focus

WIK FormPersonalization.png

More detailed documentation:Window_Personalization

Bulbgraph.png   This is a Premium functionality. Learn more about the benefits of Openbravo's commercial editions

Activating, resizing, maximizing and toggling levels

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Each application window is split in two visible levels. This can be either parent-child or child-grandchild (or even deeper down). The distribution of the height of each level is not fixed as it can be changed by dragging the horizontal splitter bar that divides the two levels.

Only one level can be active at a time. An active level is marked with an orange vertical strip on the left hand side and an orange horizontal strip on top of the tab. You can toggle between active levels simply by clicking in a non-active level. The orange markers will move along.

The standard view is parent-child (also known as header-lines). In case there is a third level available, it will sit at the bottom of the window in collapsed state. In order to expand the third level, you can simply click on its tab. It will then pop out and push the other levels upwards. In this case you will notice that the top level (header) will become collapsed. Here the same interaction principle applies: a single click on the header tab will make it re-appear.

A level can be maximized by double clicking on its tab. Double clicking it again will restore its size to the previous size.

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Saving Views

Saving Views stores grid and form settings, column filters and even the entire layout of the screen, for example the position of the splitterbar between the header and lines. So imagine that you rearranged your grid and it´s perfectly adapted to your task. You even added some column filters, for example you only want to see invoices that are more than 21 days overdue for organization East Coast. Now you save all this in one go using a name. Now when you need to work on another task that needs other filters and grid or form settings, you can easily retrieve this view later. You can access Saved Views through a pull down menu that sits underneath the Saved Views button in the toolbar.

WIK SavingViews.png

A saved view can be set as default and can be deleted. The active view is indicated by a little arrow in front of the view name.

As an administrator you are able to save predefined views on different levels (client, org, role) which are made available to users. As a regular user you can only edit/save views on your own levels and not change views entered by an administrator.

More detailed documentation: Window_Personalization

Bulbgraph.png   This is a Premium functionality. Learn more about the benefits of Openbravo's commercial editions

Advanced Grid Functionality

The Openbravo 3 grids let you browse, select, filter and organize high volumes of records with ease. Listed below are the main capabilities of the new grids.

Selecting Rows

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Row(s) in grids can be selected as follows:

  • Selecting a single row is simply done by clicking on it. There is no need to tick the checkbox in front of the row.
  • Multiple selection is done by either ticking the checkboxes in front of the rows or using CTRL-click or SHIFT-click combinations.
  • All records displayed in the grid can be selected using the checkbox in the top left of the grid as far as the number of records is smaller than 100.

In the top left of the grid, two numbers are shown. The first one indicates the number of selected rows, the second one the total number of rows in the grid.

Column Filters

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On top of the columns in a grid you will find column filters. There are several types of column filters:

  • Regular column filters: These are fields that are empty by default but once you start typing the first characters of a search term, the grid will be filtered in real-time.
  • Date column filters: Clicking it will launch a dialog where you can set a range, for example 8 days ago till today.
  • Dropdown reference column filters: filters on references to other data, for example from a sales order to a business partner. You can filter on multiple values (available from MP17), if there are many values to filter on then you can scroll in the dropdown box.
  • Dropdown column filters: Filters that contain a limited set of values. Just open the dropdown and select a value. From MP17 you can select more than one value to filter on.

The following symbols can be used in regular column filter fields to create more complex filter expressions. Note that once you start typing a filter expression in a numerical value column, the real-time filtering is switched off and you will need to hit Enter to apply the filter.


Symbol Filter Example Which means
< less than (also works for strings) <100 Only show amounts less than 100
> greater than (also works for strings) >100 Only show amounts greater than 100
! not equal (also works for strings) !100 Show everything except amounts that equal 100
^ starts with ^H Only show values that start with "H"
EndsWithSymbol.png ends with EndsWithSymbol.pngH Only show values that end with "H"
!^ does not start with !^H Only show values that do not start with "H"
!@ does not end with !@H Only show values that do not end with "H"
~ contains (this is the default for most column filters) ~buenas Only show values that contain "buenas"
!~ does not contain !~buenas Only show values that do not contain "buenas"
# is Null # Only show records without a value in this column (works in regular and date column filters)
!# is not Null !# Only show records with a value in this column (works in regular and date column filters)
== exact match (for fields where 'contains' is the default) ==FV/1 Only show values that equal exactly "FV/1"
a...b range (between a and b) 0...100 Only show values between 0 and 100.
or OR boolean check or cash Only show records that contain "check" or "cash". Note if you want to use the term 'or' as a filter value then you should prefix it with a '\'. So to get all records containing the value 'or' filter using this value: \or.
and AND boolean check and cash Only show records that contain "check" and "cash". Note if you want to use the term 'and' as a filter value then you should prefix it with a '\'. So to get all records containing the value 'and' filter using this value: \and.


Filters can be cleared by clicking the funnel icon in the top right of the grid.

Client Filtering

Bulbgraph.png   This capability is available starting from MP28

When applying column filters in a grid, a new request is done to backend to retrieve the filtered data set. In case of applying a filter more restrictive than the one used to retrieve the previous one and if the complete data set for that previous filter has already been completely retrieved from the client (this is, the number of records matching the filter is equals or smaller than the page size -100 records-), the filtering is done in the browser without the need of doing additional requests. This implies a better performance in these cases saving backend trips.

Grid Configuration

Bulbgraph.png   This capability is available starting from MP31. It was sponsored through Agility ERP to enable more efficient user interaction with grids configured against a table with millions of rows. In this case it can make sense to restrict the normal interaction to avoid inefficient queries that result in full table scans.

The behaviour of the grid filters can be configured by system administrators at System level (Grid Configuration at System Level window) or Tab and Field level (Grid Configuration at Window/Tab/Field Level). Tab configurations will overwrite system configurations, and field configuration will overwrite tab configurations. Grid configuration also can be configured to determine if a column is sortable or not.

Working with high volume of data we recommend to deactivate sorting and filtering in some/most columns in backend grids. How to configure high volume windows.

The following parameters can be configured in these windows:

  • By Default Allow Sorting: If this property is set to false, columns will not be sortable.
  • By Default Allow Filtering: If this property is set to false, column filters will be disabled.
  • Text Field Filter Behavior: Defines the operator used on the filter of text columns. Allowed values are equals, iEquals, startsWith, iStartsWith, contains and iContains).
  • Threshold to Trigger Filter on Text Field (in ms): By default 500 milliseconds after the last user keystroke on the filter of a text colum, a request to the datasource will be done with the current content of the filter. If the user types at a rate slower than 500 milliseconds, then each time the users enters a string in a text filter it will result in several datasource requests. This parameter can be configured to make this delay higher (values lower than 500 will not be applied).
  • Filter On Change: Using this property the user can change the behavior of text filters, so instead of triggering a datasource request some time after the last keystroke of the user, the datasource request will be triggered only when the user presses enter or moves the focus out of the text filter.
  • Lazy Filtering on Grid: If this property is set to true, then the filters will not be applied to the grid until the user presses enter or clicks on the check icon under the funnel icon. This allows to define several filters and then do just one request to the datasource. If this property is checked then the user opens a window the initial datasource request will not be done automatically. The user will have to do the datasource request explicitally after he sets the filters he needs. This property also affects when changing the sorting criteria of the grid: when set to true, the sorting will not be performed until the user presses the enter key or the mentioned check icon.
  • Allow Filtering Foreign Keys by its Identifier: If this flag is unchecked, then the only way to filter the foreign key columns will be by picking some value from the filter drop down. The query done to fetch data when the filter is set this way is much better than the query done when the column is filtered without using the filter drop down. Even if this flag is unchecked the user will be able to enter text to filter the data shown in the drop down list.
  • Unfiltered Foreign Key Combo: If this flag if checked, the filter drop down will show the rows from the referenced table unfiltered by specific rows being referenced in the referencing table. The filters entered by the user in the grid filter editor will be applied. This configuration makes sense if the referenced table does not have that much volume, but loading the foreign key filter drop down takes a lot of time anyway.
  • Disable Foreign Key Filter Combo: In some cases the population of the drop down is very slow even using the previous configuration. In that case, it could be useful to use this configuration, that will get rid of the foreign key filter combo, so that the column will be filtered like a standard text column. Use this only if filtering this way outperforms the population of the combo.
  • Allow Summary Functions: Determines if the Summary Functions can be added into the grid, i.e., the menu entry which allows the entering of this summaries will not be available if this flag is not checked. Besides, in the case of Summary Functions already present in Saved Views, they will not be displayed.
  • Allow Transactional Filters: If this property is set to true then the transactional filters will be enabled. Otherwise, all the transactional filters will be disabled.
  • Sequence Number: In case of having multiple configurations for the same level, it determines which one is going to be applied. In these cases the configuration that will be taken into account is the one with the highest sequence number.
Bulbgraph.png   The Allow Filtering Foreign Keys by its Identifier feature (also sponsored through Agility ERP) is available starting from PR14Q4
Bulbgraph.png   The Unfiltered Foreign Key Combo and the Disable Foreign Key Filter Combo features are available starting from PR15Q3
Bulbgraph.png   The Sequence Number fields is available starting from PR16Q2
Bulbgraph.png   The Allow Summary Functions feature is available starting from PR17Q1
Bulbgraph.png   The Allow Transactional Filters feature is available starting from PR19Q2

Column filtering and sorting configuration

Bulbgraph.png   The Allow Sorting and the Allow Filtering checkboxes are available starting from PR16Q2

Every column in Openbravo is filterable and sortable by default. Every column has two checkbox fields which are called Allow Sorting and Allow Filtering that are checked by default. Those checkboxes can be unchecked to make the columns not sortable or not filterable. This can be configured by system administrators in the Tables and Columns window and there it can be chosen the column of which one wants to change the default sorting or filtering properties.

These defaults can be overridden by a Grid Configuration. In case sorting or filtering is allowed for a column, its behavior can be overridden by a configuration at any level. But if filtering or sorting is disabled, it can be only be enabled by a configuration at field level.

Implicit Filters

Some grids, especially those with large data volumes, have preset hidden filters, the so called implicit filters. Typical implicit filters are set to filter out already process transactional documents or documents before a certain date. Implicit filters can be cleared by clicking the funnel icon in the top right of the grid.

Filtering in Selector Grids

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Selectors make use of modal dialogs containing grids. Selector grids work in the same way as regular grids. Often, they also contain preset implicit filters that can be cleared by clicking the funnel icon. Typical cases where selectors are used are business partner and product selection.

Setting Column Visibility

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Via a right-mouse-click on any column header, a context menu can be invoked. In this menu, you can set the column visibility via the Columns item by ticking or unticking the column (field) names.

Setting Column Order & Widths

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Column order and width can simply be modified by dragging the column header or separating split line to another position.

Sorting

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Columns can be sorted by clicking on a column header. A second click sorts the column in the reverse order. A triangle symbol conveys the current ordering.

Client Sorting

Bulbgraph.png   This capability is available starting from MP28

In the same way to Client Filtering, when the number of records matching current filters is equals or smaller than the page size -100 records-, sorting is directly done in the browser instead of performing additional request to backend.

Disable Sorting

Bulbgraph.png   This capability is available starting from MP31

Sorting can be disabled at System, Tab or Field level by configuring the By Default Allow Sorting parameter in the Grid Configuration at System Level and Grid Configuration at Window/Tab/Field Level windows.

Sorting Lazily

Bulbgraph.png   This capability is available starting from MP31

If the Lazy Filtering on Grid parameter is set to true (for more information about grid configuration click here), then when the user clicks on a field title in order to sort the grid using that field, the sorting will not be applied until the user types Enter on a grid filter or until he clicks on the check icon below the funnel icon. This reduces the number of datasource requests, allowing the user to change the sorting and change several filters and then do only one datasource request.

Grouping

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Records can be grouped by a certain value/column (available from MP17).

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Grouping is not enabled by default. The 'Grouping Enabled' preference should be set.

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To group click on the column header context menu and select 'Group by...'. The display of grid will now show the records in a grouped manner.

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If the dataset is too large then grouping is disabled. A message is displayed if a large dataset is grouped. The maximum number of records which can be grouped is also controlled by a preference: 'Maximum Number of Records for Grouping'.

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To ungroup, click the 'ungroup' option in the column header context menu.

Grid Summaries

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Bulbgraph.png   This capability is available starting from MP17.

The grid allows you to set summary functions for a column. These summary values are shown in a separate row in the bottom of the grid. The summary functions are executed on the server so they operate on the complete dataset which fits into the current filter.

To set a summary function click on the column header context menu and go into the 'Set Summary Function' submenu. Numeric and date fields will have several summary functions, other fields will only have a 'count' summary function.

You can remove the summary row by clicking on the 'Clear Summary Functions' option in the column context menu.

It is also possible to set a summary function in the Application Dictionary (in the Window, Tabs, Field window in the Field tab). This summary function is then enabled by default when opening the target window. See the screenshot on the right on how to set this in the Application Dictionary. Valid summary functions are: avg, count, max, min, sum.


Limitations

Bulbgraph.png   This limitation starting from 3.0PR17Q1.

Summary functions are not supported on tabs defined based on HQL Query Tables. For this reason, since 3.0PR17Q1 the 'Set Summary Function' submenu is not available for this kind of tabs.

Bulbgraph.png   This limitation starting from 3.0PR17Q2.

As computed columns allow to be defined with any arbitrary sql statement, the risk of underperformance when included in a summary function is much bigger. For this reason Summary functions are not supported in computed columns.

Bulbgraph.png   This limitation starting from 3.0PR18Q1.

Summary functions are not supported on tabs defined based on Datasource Tables. For this reason, since 3.0PR18Q1 the 'Set Summary Function' submenu is not available for this kind of tabs.

Freezing Columns

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Freezing columns means that they will be kept in the same position regardless of the position of the horizontal slider bar. Freezing column(s) is typically done when information in the right hand side of the grid (that is accessed via horizontal scrolling) needs to be viewed in the context of columns on the left hand side.

Columns can be frozen via the grid context menu that is invoked via a right mouse click on a column header.

Formula Columns

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A formula column shows the outcome of an equation using values of two or more columns. Via the context menu (right mouse click on column header) the formula dialog is launched. Here, you enter the title of the column and the actual definition. Every column containing numerical values is represented by a capital letter. These letters are used to build the formula. For example:

  • A = Total Paid
  • B = Outstanding Amount

The formula to sum these two is: A+B

Summary Columns

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Similar to the formula columns, the summary columns simply combine to non-numerical values into a single string. The columns are represented by capital letters. When building the expression the pound sign (#) needs to be used to identify them as values.

Printing

With the print button of the toolbar (WIK button Print.png) it is possible to launch a process that generates a report with the information of the records in a grid. By default there exists print processes for a limited set of windows:

  • Business Partner
  • Requisition
  • Goods Shipment
  • Goods Receipt
  • Sales Order
  • Purchase Order
  • Sales Invoice
  • Purchase Invoice
  • Payment In
  • Payment Out

Direct Print

For the windows related to the standard documents (goods shipments/receipts, orders, invoices and payments) it is also possible to configure them for direct printing, i.e, instead of downloading the printed report, the print page of the browser is directly opened with the report information.

To enable this print mode, the Direct Print preference should be used and the browser must be configured to directly open the PDF files instead of downloading them. This link explains how to configure it in Chrome.

Please note that this feature relies on the functionality provided by the browser and not all the supported browsers currently support it. For example, Mozilla Firefox ESR browser does not support it due to this bug. Refer here for a list of browsers where the direct print has been tested.

Exporting grid content to a spreadsheet

Openbravo 3 allows the user to export grid content to a CSV file (Comma-Separated Values) via a button in the toolbar(WIK button Export.png). This file can then be imported in most spreadsheet applications such as Microsoft Excel and OpenOffice.

To configure the export functionality correctly, follow these guidelines:

  • The exported file is by default formatted using the iso-8859-1 encoding, which is the standard used in Windows environments and which works correctly with Microsoft Excel. In case any odd characters appear in the spreadsheet after importing a file, such as accented letters, then probably the iso-8859-1 encoding is not the best for your environment. This is probably because you are not using the Windows operating system or you are using a different spreadsheet. In case you are encountering this problem, look into the next section to find out how you can change this.
  • Openbravo has a decimal separator character, used to format numbers with decimals in the application. The Export to Spreadsheet functionality uses this character when exporting the file. This character is very important in some spreadsheets because it's used when importing a CSV file to detect whether a field should be treated as a number or not. In case a wrong decimal separator is chosen, numbers will be imported into the spreadsheet appliction as strings and problems will occur when trying to do mathematical operations on them. If you encounter this problem, you should check that your decimal separator is correctly configured in your Openbravo environment. Here you can find more information on how to configure the Format.xml file. If you are still interested in configuring the decimal separator of the exported files differently from the one used in the application, then check the next section to find out how to do it.
  • The file uses a specific character (which is the comma by default) to separate each field. This works flawlessly in general but in some spreadsheet applications it might be necessary to use a different one. Check the next section if you want to find out how to do it.
  • By default, dates and times are exported in UTC. To set a different time zone, create a Local Timezone ID preference with a valid value from this list. This preference can be set at any visibility level from System to User, but not Window.

Configuring export parameters in your Openbravo environment

You can change the decimal separator, the field separator, and the encoding of the file you get when you use the Export to Spreadsheet functionality in Openbravo if you need them to be different from the default values.

This is done via preferences. After logging in to Openbravo, go to the Preference window and do the following:

  • If you want to change the decimal separator: create a new record. Select the "CSV Decimal Separator" in the "Property" field. In the "value" field, type your selected decimal separator (for example, the comma character (,), or the decimal point (.)). Save the record.
  • If you want to change the field separator: create a new record. Select the "CSV Field Separator" in the "Property" field. In the "value" field, type your selected field separator. Save the record.
  • If you want to change the file encoding: create a new record. Select the "CSV Text Encoding" field in the "Property" field. In the "value" field, type the selected file encoding (for example, UTF-8 should work in most non-Windows non-Excel environments). Save the record.

Since Openbravo 3.0PR14Q4, it also possible to define a header and/or footer text that will be included into any CSV file exported from the grid content. This text can be used, for example, for legal purposes (confidentiality of data, restrictions, etc.). This configuration is done via two new preferences: "CSV Header Message" and "CSV Footer Message" in the same way as described above. In the "value" field you can either specify any plain text or alternatively the search key of a Message defined into the Application Dictionary. The former will directly include the plain text message into the CSV header or footer, and the latter will include the correspondent message's text, translating it to the user's language if available.

After creating the preference (or preferences), log out of the application. Log in again, and try the Export to Spreadsheet functionality, to see the results.

Workspace & Widgets

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The first tab contains the Openbravo Workspace, a customized portal-style home page. This tab cannot be closed as its contents are essential.

Widgets are customizable and the available set will be dependent on role and instance activation status.

To add widgets, simply click the Add Widget>> link in the left column in the workspace and select from the library.

Administrate widgets for other clients or roles

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With the appropriate administrative rights, you can pick widgets for others users or clients in your organization. Via the Admin Others >> link on the left hand side of the workspace you can choose for which entity (client), organization or role you want to define a widget set.

On the subsequent page you can then add widgets to this user´s / client´s workspace. Once done, click the Publish button to broadcast the selected widgets to the user(s) in the chosen entity/organization/role. The next time they log in, they will find the newly added widgets on their workspace.

Toolbar

The Toolbar contains two types of buttons: Action buttons (green) and Process buttons (orange). Actions are generic and can be applied to almost all selected records. Processes are record specific and depend on the record status and the active level (header or lines or lower).

WIK Toolbar.png

The action buttons perform the following actions:

WIK button NewForm.png New Form Create a new record in form view
WIK button InsertRow.png Insert Row Insert a new row in grid view
WIK button Save.png Save Save the record
WIK button SaveClose.png Save and Close Save the record, close the form view and go back to the grid view
WIK button SaveCloseX.png Close Close the record in form view and go back to the grid view
WIK button Cancel.png Cancel Refresh the window and revert changes
WIK button Delete.png Delete Delete the selected record(s)
WIK button Refresh.png Refresh Refresh the window
WIK button Export.png Export Export the grid to CSV format
WIK button Clone.png Clone Clone the selected record(s) - (Only for Sales Orders)
WIK button Print.png Print Print the selected record(s)
WIK button Email.png Email Email the selected record(s)
WIK button Attach.png Attach a File Attach a file to the active record
WIK button AttachOn.png File(s) attached Attach a file. Status: file(s) attached.
WIK button Tree.png Tree Rearrange account tree element value
WIK button URL.png Create link Create a URL to the selected document that can be pasted into email or IM
WIK button Audit.png Audit Trail Enable audit trail for this window (Basic and Professional Edition only)
WIK button PersonalizeForm.png Personalize Form Layout Personalize the form layout (Basic and Professional Edition only)
WIK button SaveView.png Save View Save and retrieve views (Basic and Professional Edition only)
WIK button Dunning.png Dunning Apply dunning workflow (Commercial Extension Module)

Statusbar

WIK Statusbar.png

The statusbar conveys the editing status of the document (New, Editing or Saved) together with a user-defined set of read-only attributes. These allow the user to get an overview of the document without having to scan the remainder of the form. The statusbar is only visible in form view. On the right side of the statusbar the following buttons are available:

WIK button Next.png Browse to next record
WIK button Previous.png Browse to previous record
WIK button Max.png Maximize form
WIK button Restore.png Restore form to previous size
WIK button Close.png Close form (save and return to grid)

User Messages

User Messages are displayed centrally and their function is to inform or warn the user about some occurring situation in the application. There are four different types of user messages.

WIK message Error.png Error Message
WIK message Success.png Success Message
WIK message Info.png Info Message
WIK message Warning.png Warning Message
WIK message Tip.png Tip Message

The messages can be hidden by clicking the little X icon in the top right of the message.

Sections

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Forms contain sections that group assets such as linked items, notes, attachments and groups of related fields. Sections can be expanded and collapsed by clicking on their header or the twisti (triangle shaped icon).

More Info

In this section the less frequently used fields are placed so they won´t bother you in the main part of the form.

Audit

In this section the fields related to audit are placed. Just as for the More Info section, the reason they were tucked away here is to reduce the visual clutter in the main part of the form.

Notes

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In this section you can add notes related to the document. These could be notes to self or to colleagues. The bar on the left hand side is colored gray for your own notes and green for notes added by someone else. This way you can identify in one glimpse which notes aren't yours.

Linked Items

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In this section all related documents to the active document are shown. The left column contains the window types with the amount of related documents shown in brackets. By selecting one of the window types to the left, the actual documents appear in the right column. The links are clickable and will launch the document on a new tab.

Attachments

In this section the attachments to a record are stored. For more information on attachments and the API used to get attachments, refer here.

Starting from 3.0MP31, it is possible to have a description for each attachment.

Keyboard Shortcuts

This list is just a starting point. As it is virtually impossible to find the ideal set of keyboard shortcuts for all platforms and languages it is recommended to modify and create your own. You can do this in the General Setup